Docker gets some competition with new Joyent, Canonical containers

Watch out, Docker! You're no longer the only container-based virtualization technology on the block -- spurred by the sudden success of Docker, platform services provider Joyent and Linux distributor Canonical have each open-sourced their container technologies.

By
Joab Jackson
| Nov 06, 2014

| IDG News Service

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Watch out, Docker! You're no longer the only container-based virtualization technology on the block -- spurred by the sudden success of Docker, platform services provider Joyent and Linux distributor Canonical have each open-sourced their container technologies.

Joyent's collection of container technologies could be used as the basis for running large-scale, big-data analysis jobs, and Canonical's new container comes with additional safety measures for mission-critical workloads, according to each company.

Earlier this week, Google announced that it would be providing software to run Docker containers on its cloud services. It was the latest win for the rapidly ascending Docker, which is now the dominant container technology on the market. Containers are lighter and faster alternatives than the full virtual machine hypervisors offered by VMware, Citrix and Microsoft. Google uses the containers to run its cloud services.

Docker, the company behind the open-source software of the same name, noted that its Docker engine has been downloaded 20 million times and over 13,000 third-party projects have been built on the software since its launch in March 2013.

Now Joyent and Canonical want to get a part of the container fever, with releases of Docker alternatives.

"SmartDataCenter and Manta show that containers aren't merely a fad or developer plaything but rather a fundamental technological advance that represents the foundation for the next generation of computing--and we believe that open sourcing them advances the adoption of container-based architectures more broadly," wrote Bryan Cantrill, Joyent software engineer, in a blog post announcing the release.

Earlier this week, Linux distributor Canonical also launched a secure container-based technology, LXD (Linux Container Daemon). LXD offers the speed of Docker, but the security of a fully isolated virtual machine, in which each container is isolated so it can't spy other containers. It relies on a number of Linux security technologies, including kernel support for user name spaces and CGroups, as well as third-party Linux security mechanisms Secgroup and AppArmour.

Like Docker, LXD is based on the LXC (Linux Containers) core virtualization technology. Unlike Docker, LXD will only run on Linux servers. It also features the ability to migrate running containers between one node and another with no downtime, according to Canonical.